Editing Nguyễn Văn Thiệu (section)

==Life in exile==
[[File:Nguyen Van Thieu with map (cropped).jpg|thumb|President Thiệu]]
In his farewell speech, Thiệu said, "I resign, but I do not desert,"<ref name=lat/> but he fled to [[Taiwan]] on a [[C-118]] transport plane five days later.<ref name=lat/> According to [[Morley Safer]], the CIA was involved in the flight of Thiệu, his aides, and a "planeload of suitcases containing heavy metal," though it was revealed in 2015 by Tuổi Trẻ, a Vietnamese news source, that the "heavy metal", which was 16 tons of gold, was left behind and given to the Soviet Union from 1979 onwards as debt payment.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://tuoitre.vn/tin/chinh-tri-xa-hoi/phong-su-ky-su/20150410/thuong-vu-dac-biet-ban-vang/731957.html |title=Thương vụ đặc biệt: bán vàng! |access-date=16 January 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170118050816/http://tuoitre.vn/tin/chinh-tri-xa-hoi/phong-su-ky-su/20150410/thuong-vu-dac-biet-ban-vang/731957.html |archive-date=18 January 2017 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref name=safer1991>''Flashbacks'', Morley Safer, St Martins Press/Random House, 1991</ref> Thiệu also brought 15 tons of luggage with him.<ref>{{Citation|title=Vietnam War {{!}} The 20th century {{!}} World history {{!}} Khan Academy| date=27 April 2011 |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9e9GWdT2pEQ|language=en|access-date=3 January 2022}}</ref>

Thiệu initially lived in Taiwan at the house of his brother Nguyen Van Kieu, the Ambassador of South Vietnam to Taiwan before moving to a rented property in [[Tianmu, Shilin District|Tianmu]], downtown [[Taipei]]. According to a ''[[New York Times]]'' report, Thiệu suffered from depression at this time as a result of going into exile.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1975/06/03/archives/thieu-moves-into-rented-house-in-taipei.html |title=Thieu Moves Into Rented House in Taipei |work=The New York Times |date=3 June 1975 |access-date=20 July 2023 |archive-date=31 May 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210531221157/https://www.nytimes.com/1975/06/03/archives/thieu-moves-into-rented-house-in-taipei.html |url-status=bot: unknown }}</ref> After a brief spell in Taiwan, he then settled in [[London]], having obtained a visa there because his son was studying at [[Eton College]] and lived in a house in [[Kingston upon Thames]].<ref name=indep/> Thiệu kept a low profile, and in 1990 even the British Foreign Office claimed to have no information on his personal life or whereabouts. In the early 1990s, Thiệu took up residence in [[Foxborough, Massachusetts]], where he lived reclusively. He never produced an autobiography, rarely assented to interviews and shunned visitors. Neighbours had little contact with him or knowledge of him, aside from seeing him walking his dog.<ref name=lat/> He did, however, give an interview to the West German magazine ''[[Der Spiegel]]'' in 1979 and appeared in the 1980 documentary television mini-series ''[[Vietnam: The Ten Thousand Day War]]'', discussing his time as president of South Vietnam.<ref>[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0174323/fullcredits?ref_=tt_cl_sm#cast ''Vietnam: The Ten Thousand Day War'' on IMDB].</ref>

Thiệu's aversion to public appearances was attributed to a fear of hostility from South Vietnamese who believed that he had failed them.<ref name=indep/> He acknowledged his compatriots' low esteem of his administration in a 1992 interview, but said, "You say that you blame me for the fall of South Vietnam, you criticize me, everything. I let you do that. I {{sic}} like to see you do better than I." Thiệu continually predicted the demise of the Vietnamese Communist Party's grip on power and warned the [[Vietnam-United States relations|United States government not to establish diplomatic relations]] with the communist regime. Relations between the US and the communist regime in Hanoi were formally established in 1995.<ref name=lat/> Thiệu said that when the communists are deposed and "democracy is recovered," he would return to his homeland, but their hold on Vietnam remained unchallenged during his lifetime.<ref name=lat/> He futilely offered to represent the refugee community in reconciliation talks with Hanoi so exiles could be allowed to return home.<ref name=tel/>

Thiệu was criticized by many opponents and historians, but he was appreciated by others. The US ambassador to South Vietnam, [[Ellsworth Bunker]], told former [[United States Secretary of Defense|Secretary of Defense]] [[Melvin Laird]] about Thiệu: "He is an individual of very considerable intellectual capacity. He made the decision in the beginning to follow the constitutional road, not to rule with a clique of generals, which many of them expected he would do. He has been acting more and more like a politician, getting out into the country, following up on pacification, talking to people, seeing what they want."<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|title = A Better War: The unexamined victories and final tragedy of America's last years in Vietnam|last = Sorley|first = Lewis|publisher = Harcourt Brace & Co.|year = 1999|isbn = 978-0-15-601309-3|location = New York|pages = 185–186}}</ref> The military historian [[Lewis Sorley]] suggests that Thiệu "was arguably a more honest and decent man than Lyndon Johnson, and – given the differences in their respective circumstances – quite likely a more effective president of his country."<ref name=":0" />